Pat O Cotter

While all Europe is a shambles  And the whole world is at war,
And half the land the sun shines on  Is drenched in human gore;
When every Nation counts the men  It knows are tried and
We send this message to you,

As long as lure o' placer gold Brings North the best ye breed,
As long as tales of camps and trails Are planted with your seed,
As long as red blood courses thru And warms adventure's sons,
They'll sally forth, bound for the North,…

As one who lays aside a task, where one has ruled alone,
I lay aside the crown of hell, and give to you my throne;
As one who feels his race is run, whose day is of the past,
I recognize your genius, and abdicate at last.

Some sigh for the breath of the desert Where the stifling heat waves blow;
Some pant for the trackless tundra And the sting of the cold and snow;
Some long for the wash of a sultry sea As it breaks on a tropic shore;
Some pine for…

This Land is the orphan kiddie Of the group with their stars in the Flag,
And it's looked on Outside as an alien, Where its treatment makes honest men gag.
It's treated the same as the harlot Who barters her body for
And carries it…

Looking for placer pangar, Loafing about in the hills,
Getting your grub with a rifle, Taking your drink from rills.
Getting your bed from the spruce tree, Taking your course by your dreams,
Just camping alone in the mountains,…

If you can hit the trail in zero weather And laugh at frozen hand, or foot or face;
If you can eat your dogs, and still keep moving And beat the rest, and hold the stampede's pace;
If you can stake and dig alone, unaided And hold your…

When the stars from the skies have fallen And the smoke of the world's cleared away;
When Saint Peter marks "30" in Life's Book And we meet there on Judgment Day;
When our trials and troubles are ended And we're wise to the…

A man that's spent years knocking round "
out in front" Has most usually had lots of pals--He's mixed up with pardners at various times And he's had his affairs with the gals.
Now, a pardner's peculiar in lots of his ways And…

My trade was old when the world was new, Ere the pyramids rose by the
Men quitted their wives, and gave me their goods For the warmth of my kiss, and my smile.
For never was wife who could hold her man By the honeymoon's
Did I veil…

The home of the tin can and dog,
A waste of snow, ice, and moss.
The graveyard of ambitions,
The by-word for hell

He was born far east of the Rockies Of a pet in society's van;
A wine-soaked daughter of pleasure Bred back and threw a man;
A man-child who grew up a stranger, Who never could learn the
Of a people who gauge their pleasure On a…

Where the ragged, snow-capped saw tooth Cuts the azure of the
And watches o'er the lonely land As ages wander by;
Where the sentinel pines in grandeur Murmur to the glacier
As it, ice-gorged, gluts the canyon, Never brightened by…

The dream of the white man ever goes out To the fight that can never be won,
And ever he plans to do the things That they say can never be done.
It's seldom he values the things that are What he craves he may never gain,
Yet ever…

For a thousand years the Devil crouched On the white hot flags of hell:
For a thousand years the Devil cursed The imps that had chained him well;
For a thousand years the Devil sulked And planned with his hell-trained
Of the things…

Why is it Alaskans all come back When they've quit this land for good?
Why is it that no man stays away When he's sworn to his friends he would?
Where lies the grip this country hath All tangled around the
That takes a grip that…

Along in early spring time, as the sun starts swinging
To linger with the land it loves, and violets peep forth,
When the water starts to running thru the riffle blocks at
And you figure that you'll clean up, about the first of June.

The China Coast's a dumping ground  And the South Sea gets its
Of the kind of men that don't make
The kind of man that never could  The men that never care.
A worthless, careless drinking lot  Combed out from between the Poles.